U.S. patent application number 10/879387 was filed with the patent office on 2005-12-29 for systems and methods for generating and storing referential links in a database.
This patent application is currently assigned to The Boeing Company. Invention is credited to Chew, Susan C., Eames, Patrick J., Hadley, Brent L..
Application Number | 20050289447 10/879387 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35507540 |
Filed Date | 2005-12-29 |
United States Patent
Application |
20050289447 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Hadley, Brent L. ; et
al. |
December 29, 2005 |
Systems and methods for generating and storing referential links in
a database
Abstract
Systems and methods for the generation of referential links
according to predetermined association rules are disclosed. In one
embodiment, the system includes a first data storage location
operable to store at least one data structure and having data
elements extracted from at least one written document. A second
data storage location stores at least one business rule that
defines an association between data elements in the data structure.
A processor is coupled to the first data storage location and the
second data storage location to process the data elements in the
data structure and generate referential links corresponding to the
business rule. In another embodiment, a method includes selecting
at least one business rule that describes a selected attribute of a
written document. The data structure is processed to generate a
referential link corresponding to the business rule and stored in a
database.
Inventors: |
Hadley, Brent L.; (Kent,
WA) ; Eames, Patrick J.; (Newcastle, WA) ;
Chew, Susan C.; (Issaquah, WA) |
Correspondence
Address: |
BLACK LOWE & GRAHAM, PLLC
701 FIFTH AVENUE
SUITE 4800
SEATTLE
WA
98104
US
|
Assignee: |
The Boeing Company
Chicago
IL
|
Family ID: |
35507540 |
Appl. No.: |
10/879387 |
Filed: |
June 29, 2004 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
715/205 ;
707/E17.013; 715/234 |
Current CPC
Class: |
G06F 40/134 20200101;
G06F 40/143 20200101; G06F 16/94 20190101 |
Class at
Publication: |
715/501.1 |
International
Class: |
G06F 017/21 |
Claims
What is claimed is:
1. A system for generating referential document links, comprising:
a first data storage location operable to store at least one data
structure, the at least one data structure including data elements
extracted from at least one written document; a second data storage
location operable to store at least one business rule that defines
an association between data elements in the at least one data
structure; and a processor coupled to the first data storage
location and the second data storage location and being configured
to process the data elements in the at least one data structure and
generate at least one referential link corresponding to the at
least one business rule.
2. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first storage
location and the second storage location comprise portions of a
mass storage device.
3. The system of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first storage
location and the second storage location comprise a memory location
in the processor.
4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second data storage location
is configured to store information related to a document
source.
5. The system of claim 1, further comprising a third data storage
location coupled to the processor and configured to store the at
least one referential link generated by the processor.
6. The system of claim 5, further comprising a link processor
coupled to the third storage location operable to access the links
residing in the third storage location.
7. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one data structure
stored in the first data storage location processor further
comprises an XML document.
8. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one referential link
generated by the processor further comprises a hyperlink configured
to link corresponding portions of a hypertext document.
9. The system of claim 1, wherein the at least one business rule
stored in the second data storage location includes at least one of
a placement indicator, a format indicator and a font indicator.
10. A method for generating referential document links, comprising:
selecting at least one business rule that describes a selected
attribute of a written document; processing at least one data
structure to generate at least one referential link corresponding
to the selected business rule; and storing the at least one
referential link in a database.
11. The system of claim 10, wherein selecting at least one business
rule further comprises storing the business rule in a selected
storage location.
12. The method of claim 11, further comprising storing information
related to a document source in the selected storage location.
13. The method of claim 10, further comprising a link processor
coupled to the database, and wherein storing the at least one
referential link in a database comprises accessing the database to
view the referential link.
14. The method of claim 10, wherein processing at least one data
structure further comprises processing an XML document to generate
at least one referential link.
15. The method of claim 10, wherein processing at least one data
structure further comprises generating a hyperlink configured to
link corresponding portions of a hypertext document.
16. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least one business rule
stored in the second data storage location includes at least one of
a placement indicator, a format indicator and a font indicator.
17. The method of claim 10, wherein selecting at least one business
rule further comprises selecting a business rule that includes at
least one of a placement indicator, a format indicator and a font
indicator.
18. A method for generating referential document links from a data
structure, comprising: identifying at least one business rule
corresponding to a selected attribute of a written document;
providing information indicating a desired subject matter area;
generating at least one referential link from the data structure
corresponding to the identified business rule and the information
indicating a desired subject matter area; and transferring the at
least one referential link to a storage device.
19. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying at least one
business rule corresponding to a selected attribute of a written
document further comprises storing the business rule in a storage
location within the storage device.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein providing information
indicating a desired subject matter area further comprises storing
the information in a storage location within the storage
device.
21. The method of claim 18, further comprising a link processor
coupled to the storage device, and wherein transferring the at
least one referential link comprises accessing the storage device
to view the referential link.
22. The method of claim 18, wherein generating at least one
referential link from the data structure includes processing an XML
document.
23. The method of claim 18, wherein generating at least one
referential link from the data structure further comprises
generating a hyperlink configured to link corresponding portions of
a hypertext document.
24. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying at least one
business rule further comprises selecting a business rule that
includes at least one of a placement indicator, a format indicator
and a font indicator.
25. The method of claim 18, further comprising accessing the at
least one referential link from the storage device.
26. The method of claim 25, wherein accessing the at least one
referential link further comprises viewing the referential link on
a display device.
27. The method of claim 25, wherein accessing the at least one
referential link further comprises incorporating the referential
link into a document.
28. A method of developing referential document links for an
aircraft maintenance document, comprising: selecting at least one
business rule corresponding to a selected attribute of the aircraft
maintenance document; accessing a database that includes a
plurality of data structures formatted as XML documents; selecting
a portion of the data structures related to a maintenance topic of
interest; generating at least one referential link from the
selected portions; and transferring the at least one referential
link to a database.
29. The method of claim 28, wherein selecting at least one business
rule corresponding to a selected attribute of the aircraft
maintenance document further comprises storing the at least one
business rule in a storage location within the database.
30. The method of claim 28, wherein selecting a portion of the data
structures related to a maintenance topic of interest further
comprises providing information related to the topic of
interest.
31. The method of claim 30, wherein providing information related
to the topic of interest further comprises storing the information
in a storage location within the database.
32. The method of claim 28, further comprising a link processor
coupled to the database, and wherein transferring the at least one
referential link further comprises accessing the database to view
the referential link.
33. The method of claim 28, further comprising a link processor
coupled to the database, and wherein transferring the at least one
referential link further comprises incorporating the at least one
referential link into a maintenance document.
34. The method of claim 28, wherein generating at least one
referential link from the selected portions further comprises
generating a hyperlink configured to link corresponding portions of
a hypertext document.
35. The method of claim 28, wherein selecting at least one business
rule corresponding to a selected attribute of the aircraft
maintenance document further comprises selecting a business rule
that includes at least one of a placement indicator, a format
indicator and a font indicator.
Description
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] This invention relates generally to systems and methods for
information management, and more particularly, to systems and
methods for the generation of referential links according to
predetermined association rules.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] In recent years, commercial enterprises have increasingly
transferred documents of various types into information databases
that may be directly accessed by a user. Information databases
offer a level of convenience to a user because they do not require
the user to physically access volumes containing indexed
information, or to access drawing files, product information, and
the like. Similarly, the use of information databases is
advantageous to commercial enterprises because it allows
significant cost savings. For example, the information database
generally supports "paperless" operation, thus reducing paper and
printing costs. The use of information databases also largely
eliminates the substantial floor space requirements generally
associated with document libraries, filing cabinets and drawing
files, which are typically used to store the documents. Most
importantly, the use of information databases significantly reduces
the amount of time a user must devote to acquiring needed
documents.
[0003] As information databases increase in size, however, ease of
access to a desired document has correspondingly increased in
difficulty. Although an information database may store data in a
highly efficient manner, currently available methods for searching
and extracting useful information from the database have generally
not kept pace with the growth of information databases. In
particular, current methods for searching and extracting data
typically do not permit an intuitive and judgmental interpretation
of information stored in the database. Instead, current information
databases are generally configured in a prescribed hierarchy of
topics, so that current methods for searching and extracting the
desired data require that a user manually navigate through various
levels in the database to find the information of interest.
[0004] Although hyperlinks may assist a user in locating
information of interest, the hyperlinks are typically not
formulated by the user and thus usually encode the human judgment
of another. Accordingly, hyperlinks may not provide the flexibility
that a user desires. As an alternative, a user may utilize a
Boolean text search engine to obtain the desired information in a
more direct manner, but even well-crafted Boolean text searches
often fail to locate the desired information, and may instead lead
to the retrieval of many documents that are of little value to a
user.
[0005] One example of an information database is the Portable
Maintenance Aid (PMA) that is offered by The Boeing Company of
Chicago, Ill. The PMA includes aircraft maintenance information in
a readily accessible format so that maintenance personnel may
conveniently obtain desired maintenance information and view the
information on a viewing device. FIG. 1 is a graphical view of a
portion of the PMA 10 that includes a main directory 12 that lists
the electronic documents that are available for a particular
aircraft model, including an electronic version of an aircraft
illustrated parts catalog (AIPC), an electronic version of an
aircraft maintenance manual (AMM), as well as other documents that
may be required to properly maintain the aircraft. Upon selecting a
particular document 13 from the main directory 12, a user then
selects a desired portion 14 of the selected document 13 from
various sub-menus (not shown) or otherwise initiates movement
within the selected document 13 until the desired portion 14 of the
selected document 13 is viewed. A user may then access
illustrations 15 associated with the portion 14 through hyperlinks,
or by otherwise moving through the selected document 13.
[0006] Although the PMA 10 affords significant advantages and
constitutes an advance in the state of the art, a PMA user is
constrained to move within the PMA 10 according to predetermined
routes that are established by the author. Accordingly, if the user
needs to view other information that is not included in the portion
14 for comparison purposes, the user must print a copy of the
portion 14, and then locate the other information to make the
required comparison. Alternately, the user may open separate
viewing windows on the viewing device, and toggle between the two
windows so that the comparison may be made. In many cases, however,
information from intervening documents may be required before the
comparison can be made, which introduces further complications and
requires additional time.
[0007] Therefore, there is an unmet need in the art for apparatus
and methods that permit a user to form a desired association
between documents that allows the user to directly and conveniently
access the documents.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The present invention comprises systems and methods for the
generation of referential links according to predetermined
association rules. In one aspect, a system for generating
referential document links includes a first data storage location
operable to store at least one data structure having data elements
extracted from at least one written document. A second data storage
location stores at least one business rule that defines an
association between data elements in the data structure. A
processor is coupled to the first data storage location and the
second data storage location that is configured to process the data
elements in the data structure and generate at least one
referential link corresponding to the at least one business rule.
In another aspect, a method for generating referential document
links includes selecting at least one business rule that describes
a selected attribute of a written document. The data structure is
processed to generate at least one referential link corresponding
to the selected business rule. The referential link is then stored
in a database.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The preferred and alternative embodiments of the present
invention are described in detail below with reference to the
following drawings.
[0010] FIG. 1 is a graphical view of a portion of the content in a
database in accordance with the prior art; and,
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system for generating
referential document links according to an embodiment of the
invention;
[0012] FIG. 3 is an example of a written document that is
accessible by electronic means and drafted according to a
formatting convention;
[0013] FIG. 4 is an example of a data structure generated from the
document of FIG. 3; and
[0014] FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method of generating one or more
referential document links from a data structure using one or more
predetermined business rules, according to another embodiment of
the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0015] 1 The present invention relates to systems and methods for
information management, and, more particularly, to systems and
methods for the extraction of information from a database using
predetermined association rules. Many specific details of certain
embodiments of the invention are set forth in the following
description and in FIGS. 2 through 5 to provide a thorough
understanding of such embodiments. One skilled in the art, however,
will understand that the present invention may have additional
embodiments, or that the present invention may be practiced without
several of the details described in the following description.
[0016] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system 20 for generating
referential document links according to an embodiment of the
invention. The system 20 includes a processor 21 operable to
identify and extract referential document links, as will be
described in detail below, and generally includes any programmable
electronic device configured to receive programming instructions
and input data, and to process the data according to the
programming instructions. The link processor 21 is coupled to a
storage location 23 that permits one or more data structures 22 to
be accessed by the processor 21. The processor 21 is also coupled
to a storage location 26 that permits source information 24 and
business rule information 25 to be accessed by the processor 21.
The source information 24 and the business rule information 25, as
well as the data structures 22, will be described in further detail
below. The storage locations 23 and 26 may comprise memory
locations within the processor 21. Alternately, the storage
locations 23 and 26 may comprise portions of a mass-storage device
configured to store relatively large amounts of data, such as hard
disk drive, or other similar devices. The storage locations 23 and
26 may further be comprised of a memory device configured to
receive a removable memory medium, such as a floppy disk, an
optical disk, a magnetic tape a flash memory device, or other
well-known memory media.
[0017] The processor 21 is further coupled to a database 27 and is
configured to store the referential document links generated by the
processor 21. Accordingly, the database 27 may also comprise a
memory location within the processor 21, or may also comprise a
separate mass-storage device, such as hard disk drive, or a memory
device configured to receive a removable memory medium, such as a
floppy disk, an optical disk, a magnetic tape, a flash memory
device, or other well-known removable memory media. The database 27
is coupled to a link processor 28 that is operable to access the
referential document links stored in the database 27, to interpret
the links and to perform proper actions according to a meaning of
the link when the link is actuated. The link processor 28 is
further coupled to a peripheral device 29 that allows a user to
view one or more selected document links that are retrieved from
the database 27. Accordingly, the peripheral device 29 may include
a display screen, or other similar viewing devices. Alternately,
the peripheral device 29 may include a printing device that allows
a tangible copy to be generated. Additionally, the link processor
28 may be operable to incorporate referential links stored in the
database 27 into other selected documents.
[0018] With continued reference to FIG. 2, the data structure 22
will now be described in detail. The data structure 22 is a
document having a well-defined data format that is drafted in a
structured language, as is well known in the art. For example, in
some embodiments, the data structure 22 includes data elements
extracted from written documents that are in electronic form, such
as electronic documents in the well-known portable document format
(PDF), or from written documents in a tangible form. In the present
disclosure, it is understood that a written document refers to a
document that is readily understood by a user, such as a set of
user-readable instructions, a reference manual, and the like.
Alternately, the written documents may be unintelligible to the
user.
[0019] In one particular embodiment, the data structure 22 includes
an extended markup language (XML) document having semantic tags
that describe data elements that are extracted from the written
documents. The XML document may be generated by automated means,
such as by a method tailored to produce the XML document from a PDF
document, as is disclosed in detail in our co-pending U.S.
application Ser. No. ______, entitled "DOCUMENT INFORMATION MINING
TOOL", filed Apr. 30, 2004, under attorney docket number
BOEI-1-1257, which application is incorporated by reference.
Alternately, the XML document may be created from a conventional
printed page by electronically scanning the page to produce a
scanned image and processing the scanned image using an optical
character recognition (OCR) program to produce the document in
electronic form. The XML document may then be created by the method
disclosed in the referenced application. The XML document may also
be manually created by identifying selected data elements in a
source document and drafting the XML document according to
well-known XML authorship rules. In any case, the data structure 22
may include, for example, elements extracted from a drawing that
shows an exploded view of an assembly and/or a parts identification
list that corresponds to the drawing, a flowchart that defines a
process, or any other document of a technological nature.
Alternately, for example, the data structure 22 may include
elements extracted from a financial balance sheet, a financial
prospectus, a corporate policies manual, or other similar
documents. The data structure 22 may also be comprised of elements
drawn from various published documents that are generally available
to the public, such as newspapers, magazines, technical articles,
and the like. Accordingly, it is understood that the data structure
22 may be generated from a wide variety of written documents.
[0020] Still referring to FIG. 2, the source information 24 and the
business rule information 25 stored in the storage location 26 will
now be described. Since the data structures 22 may include data
from many various written documents, a user may prefer that
processing of the data structures 22 be limited to a selected group
of the structures 22. Accordingly, the source information 24
includes information regarding which data structures 22 are to be
processed by the processor 21. The business rule information 25 may
be comprised of any suitably well-defined property exhibited by a
written document. Accordingly, and within the context of a
manufacturing enterprise, for example, the business rule
information 25 may simply include a description of a single part as
expressed in a component part number. Other forms of business rule
information 25 may be broader in scope, and include, for example, a
selected portion of a written document format such as a title block
on the written document. The business rule information 25 may
further include, for example, the format of text within the title
block of the document. Accordingly, it is understood that many
other document attributes may be identified as business rule
information 25, as will be described in detail below.
[0021] Turning now to FIG. 3, an example of a written document 30
that is accessible by electronic means is shown. In the present
disclosure, it is understood that a written document refers to a
document that is formatted in conventional and readable form that
is readily understandable by a user of the document. The document
30 is a single page extracted from an aircraft maintenance manual
(AMM). The document 30 is thus formatted according to conventional
rules established by the Air Transport Association, Inc. (ATA) of
Washington, D.C., and accordingly includes a plurality of document
indicators that are readily identifiable, which may pertain to the
placement of text or other information in the document 30. For
example, a location designator 32 is positioned by convention in a
lower corner of the document 30. The location designator 32 also
includes format indicators that are similarly established by
convention. In particular, the designator 32 includes a chapter
number (e.g. "24") that is understood by convention to refer to the
electrical power system of an aircraft. Other numbers comprising
the designator 32 refer to a section (e.g. "11") and a subject
(e.g. "11") to fully describe a task associated with a selected
component in the aircraft electrical system.
[0022] Still other rules are present and identifiable in the
document 30. For example, the document 30 includes an effectivity
block 34 positioned in an opposing lower corner of the document 30
that includes information regarding the applicability of the
document 30 to a particular aircraft, which may be identified as a
placement indicator. The document 30 also includes a title 36
located by convention in an upper portion of the document 30 that
provides a general description of the acts described in a body 38
of the document 30. The title 36 also exhibits underlining, which
may also be extracted as a font indicator. Accordingly, a plurality
of distinct rules related to the placement of text in the document
30, the format of a text portion in the document 30, or a font used
in a text portion in the document 30 may be identified and
extracted from the document 30. The indicators thus identified may
be encoded in the data structure 22 (of FIG. 2) as will be
described in detail below.
[0023] Turning now to FIG. 4, an example of a data structure 40
generated from the document 30 of FIG. 3 is shown. The data
structure 40 in the present example is an XML document, although
other data structure formats may also be used. The data structure
40 accordingly includes a data element 42 corresponding to the
designator 32 of FIG. 3 that is positioned between corresponding
start and end tags 43, a data element 44 corresponding to the
effectivity block 34 of FIG. 3 having start and end tags 45, and a
data element 46 having start and end tags 47 that corresponds to
the title 36, as well as other data elements corresponding to other
formatted entries in the document 30 of FIG. 3. The data structure
40 may also encode a plurality of different data elements extracted
from a variety of documents.
[0024] FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a method 50 of generating one or
more referential document links from a data structure using one or
more predetermined business rules, according to another embodiment
of the invention. At block 52, one or more of the data structures
22 of FIG. 2 are selected, and the selected addresses of the data
structures 22 are stored in the source information 24. The
selection of the one or more data structures 22 is typically guided
by the type of referential document links that are desired. For
example, if it is desired that the method 50 generate referential
links between one or more portions of an AMM and inspection reports
pertaining to a particular component part, then a data structure
generated from the AMM and another data structure generated from
the inspection report documents would be selected for processing,
and their respective addresses would be stored in the source
information 24. Other data structures would accordingly be excluded
since they do not pertain to the generation of the desired
referential links. For example, financial data pertaining to the
component part would not be expected to contribute useful
referential links, so the data structure generated from the
financial data would not be included for processing.
[0025] Block 52 also requires a business rule input. With reference
again to the foregoing example, the business rule may include a
manufacturer's part number for the component, a name commonly
associated with the component, or any other well-defined
description of the part. The one or more business rules are then
stored in the business rule information 25 within the storage
location 26 of FIG. 2.
[0026] At block 54, the at least one data structure 22 selected in
block 52 is processed according to a first of the selected business
rules stored in the business rule information 25 to generate
referential document links between the at least one data structure
22 and the first of the selected business rules. At block 56, the
links generated at block 54 are stored in a corresponding portion
of the database 22 of FIG. 2. The links stored at block 56 may be
of any form operable to form a desired association, such as a
pointer to another record, or a hotspot, but in one particular
embodiment, the referential document links are hyperlinks
configured to link portions of hypertext documents.
[0027] At block 58, the method 50 determines if all of the selected
data structures 22 have been processed. If not, a next one of the
selected data structures 22 is transferred to the processor 21 for
processing according to the selected business rules stored in the
business rule information 25, as shown at block 60. If all of the
data structures 22 have been processed, the method terminates at
block 62.
[0028] In the method 50, the data structures 22 are processed
sequentially. It is understood, however, that the data structures
22 may also be processed in parallel, which may advantageously
accelerate the processing of the data structures 22 Further, it is
understood that the selected business rules may be processed
according to logical constraints. For example, the business rules
may be logically related by various Boolean relations well known in
the art, so that the data structures 22 may be processed according
to the logically-related rules. For example, it may be desirable to
process the data structures 22 by forming referential links
according to one business rule while at the same time, specifically
excluding another business rule (e.g., through the imposition of a
.not. logical constraint). Similarly, it may be desired to form the
links through a logical combination of more than one business rule,
so that more than a single business rule must be present in the
data structure 22 (e.g., through the imposition of an .and. logical
constraint).
[0029] While preferred and alternate embodiments of the invention
have been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes
can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited
by the disclosure of these preferred and alternate embodiments.
Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference
to the claims that follow.
* * * * *